For all the criticism, very few teams top the Magic’s spacing, execution and timing in their half-court schemes. Much of that credit goes to the man often hidden behind Superman’s cape, Stan Van Gundy. While having Dwight Howard certainly helps, Van Gundy has consistently squeezed the most of out what is a rather unimposing unit surrounding his star center.
The most basic staple out of the Orlando scheme is their “Horns” sets featuring two posts at the elbows and two wings in the corner with the lead guard bringing the ball down the middle of the floor. Van Gundy runs quite a few clever actions from this series and because each set starts from the same alignment, it can be easy to add wrinkles and difficult for opposing teams to scout. Orlando showcased this against the Spurs this past Wednesday, as they opened with a group of Horns sets based off the same basic movements, but got three different results.
The first trip down the floor, the Magic aligned themselves with pick and pop specialist Ryan Anderson on the left elbow, Howard on the right, JJ Redick in the left corner and Quentin Richardson in the right one. Perhaps knowing that Spurs coach Greg Popovich saw Anderson’s 30 point outburst against New York and came prepared, Van Gundy threw in an interesting counter.
As Magic point guard Jameer Nelson dribbles left off an Anderson ball screen, Anderson dives hard to the rim instead of popping to the key. Tim Duncan, perhaps preparing for an action involving Howard to set another type of screen or dive to the block, gets caught flat footed and fails to jam Anderson’s roll. With Redick in the corner, it’d be suicide for rookie Kawhi Leonard to help off on the strongside and leave an easy catch and shoot 3. Due to Duncan’s confusion, the result of the play is a nifty reverse finish for Anderson.
A few trips later, the Magic find themselves in a walk-up situation with the same exact alignment. Nelson again dribbles left off an Anderson screen and Anderson again dives toward the rim. After being burned the previous possession, Duncan rotates over to the roll man and initiates an “X-switch” for the Spurs (in which the low post defender switches to the roll guy and the hedging defender stays high, common defense for a roll-replace action in the NBA).
Howard engages in “twist” action and steps up to ball screen for Nelson heading back right. Spurs defender DeJuan Blair now is out of position to defend the second action and has no choice but to zone up the paint, essentially conceding a wide open mid-range jumper. Thankfully, Nelson has struggled shooting the ball this year and the resulting jumper misses badly.
The next possession, the action is the same but starts from a different alignment. Anderson starts at the right elbow, Howard at the left and Richardson is still moving toward the corner. Nelson dribble pushes toward the left wing as Anderson sprints to screen from the left elbow. Howard cuts diagonally to the weakside block as Anderson screens and dives toward the rim.
Anderson’s roll again forces Duncan to shift over to prevent an easy catch and finish. This play, however, is designed for a quick reversal into a post-up for Howard, so that subtle movement by Duncan allows Howard to get outstanding position in the paint. Richardson, who has lifted up toward the slot (lane-line extended) gets the reversal from Nelson and immediately feeds the ball into Howard. From such a deep position, not much can be done to stop him and Howard’s jump hook gives Orlando a 6-3 lead.
This opening sequence is a great example of why Van Gundy is elite. He schemed for a possible adjustment by an opposing coach, then used the same basic actions to get three excellent and different looks for his charges. Always fun to learn from one of the best.
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